Case Number 08253: Small Claims Court

TEEN TITANS: FEAR ITSELF

The Charge

Five Titanic Teens do their justice thing while baddies run scared!

The Case

When there's trouble, you know who to call -- Teen Titans!

Well, actually, they wouldn't occupy the top spot on my speed-dial, but you
get the idea. They are definitely the ones to call when you want some big
bad dealt an anime-style buttkicking...that's not anime enough to turn off those
who don't really dig anime. Confused? Led by Robin (Scott Menville), an ace
detective and formidable martial artist trained by the Dark Knight himself, this
group of juvenile superheroes take on all manner of dangers, from a giant robot
with a bad attitude to the worst blind prom date ever.

Ah, I see you scratching your head in bewilderment. You know the Justice
League; you may have heard of the X-Men; but the Teen Titans...? Well, allow me
to introduce you. Loosely based on the DC comic, the Teen Titans are a group of
underaged crimefighters led by Robin, who I'm sure you already know as Batman's
sidekick. Starfire (Hynden Walch) hails from the planet Tamaran; she can fly,
has super strength, and can fire "starbolts" -- blasts of energy
powerful enough to take out the toughest bad guy. She's very kind but also very
naive and is still struggling to understand how we do things here on the third
rock. Cyborg (Khary Payton) is a former athlete whose body was mangled in an
accident -- they rebuilt him; made him stronger, faster...now he serves as the
team's muscle and tech genius as well. We don't know very much about the
mysterious Raven (Tara Strong) -- yet (much will be revealed in later episodes)
-- but we do know that she has incredible mystic powers and likes her solitude.
And the hyperactive Beast Boy (Greg Cipes) can transform into any animal he
chooses and is the team's comic relief. From their headquarters, Titans Tower,
the Teen Titans are prepared to leap into action at a moments notice, and now
with a click of your DVD remote.

As with the previous two volumes of the show, a healthy selection of
episodes are presented here, approximately half of the second season -- a nice
compromise between the boxed sets and those awful three- or four-episode discs
(the horrible treatment that Justice League is currently getting -- join
me in a chant: "Boxed sets! Boxed sets! Boxed sets!"). All episodes
advertised are included on the disc, although not in the order in which they are
listed -- a novel approach to packaging that has a certain
"my-intern-threw-this-together-on-his-coffee-break" charm to it.

The first episode, "How Long Is Forever?," finds the Titans
battling Warp (Xander Berkeley), a time-jumping criminal mastermind who
accidentally catapults Starfire into a strange post-apocalyptic future (When
exactly did the future stop being cool flying cars and rocket packs and robot
maids and start being all apocalyptic? I blame the hippies and peace
protesters.) in which the Titans have drifted apart and are no longer friends;
Starfire must unite her former colleages in order to defeat the temporal
fugitive and return to her own time.

Next up is "Every Dog Has His Day," and what are the odds? When
Beast Boy decides to spend time disguised as a dog, scamming for attention at a
local park, who could have known that a visiting alien would mistake the
metamorphizing mischief-maker for his own missing mutt? It's a case of mistaken
identity in classic Titans style, as the rest of the team races to get back
their annoying but loveable friend before he winds up filling in as an
extra-terrestrial's best friend.

In "Terra," the team is introduced to a new teen hero (Ashley
Johnson, Annie: A Royal Adventure) with spectacular earth-moving powers.
She seems like a natural fit for the team, and Beast Boy quickly becomes smitten
with her, but the secrets haunting her and a terrible misunderstanding conspire
to drive her away -- even as the Titans' arch-nemesis, Slade (Ron Pearlman,
Hellboy), moves to use Terra for his own sinister purposes.

Cyborg comes to grips with his cyborg body in "Only Human"; as an
athlete, he enjoyed pushing his limits and taking himself to the next level,
which simply isn't possible in a mechanical body with built-in limitations...or
is it? Cyborg must overcome his mental limitations in order to push himself as
never before, if he has any hope of rescuing his friends from the clutches of
the super-powerful robot gamester called Atlas (Keith David, Pitch
Black). Also starring the voice of animation regular John Di Maggio, better
known as the irascible robot Bender on Futurama, and who also provided
the voice for General Grievous on Cartoon Network's Clone Wars.

"Fear Itself" introduces a new villain to the Titans' rogue's
gallery: The Control Freak (Alexander Polinsky, Charles In Charge). The
Titans manage to take out this movie-loving fanboy-gone-wrong without too much
trouble, and return to Titans Tower for some much-needed downtime, but when the
teens are picked off one by one by a mysterious force, Raven alone is left to
confront the creeping evil -- and her own fear!

And winding up this collection is "Date With Destiny," featuring
Thomas Haden Church (who had already earned some comic book cred in the
superhero spoof The Specials) as Killer Moth, a bad guy with ambitious
plans to hold the city for ransom...plans that he must put on hold when his
spoiled, obnoxious daughter Kitten breaks up with her bizarre half-spider
boyfriend Fang. When Killer Moth makes his ultimatum, there's only one way for
the Teen Titans to save the city: Robin must escort Kitten to her junior high
school prom -- much to Starfire's consternation!

This show is pure fun, from the delirious Puffy Ami Yumi theme song to the
frenetic anime-style action to the off-beat sight gags -- it's not just mindless
noise, although there's plenty of mindless noise in the package. It's a vibrant,
energetic, dizzying ride; superhero adventure for the ADD crowd. And they even
threw in a couple of special features: a pretty neat tour of Titans Tower, and
the obligatory lame DVD game -- in this case, you get to hunt down Fang (who
really is one of the more bizarre villains I've ever seen). This is worth a
look; if you haven't sampled Teen Titans yet, give it a try -- you might
be surprised. Even if you're not a hardcore comics geek (like yours
truly), you might just find a lot to like in this animated gem.